“What should we do next?” Kuchierkan asked, scratching her head anxiously. She was clearly unsettled by the unexpected disaster. She looked toward Andrea, seeking confirmation.
“Senior, it wasn’t you who did it, was it?”
“I have no reason to do such a thing. My servant has already gained the City Lord’s trust; his downfall would only make things difficult for me,” Andrea replied, denying the accusation under Ailaira’s instruction.
Ailaira followed up on her words, continuing the explanation, “I will handle the coordination of the subsequent trouble. However, I must ask you to endure some mistreatment for a while, Kuchierkan. We need to spread the word that the ‘culprit’ has been captured.”
Kuchierkan pulled a long face and dejectedly held out both hands to Ailaira. Matching the girl’s pace, she grumbled to Andrea, “Senior, I’m taking a huge loss this time. You have to teach me a few more moves later!”
“No problem. It’s all thanks to you.”
‘What a simple-minded wish,’ Andrea thought, feeling a twinge of guilt toward her fellow dragon. ‘Is this considered colluding with a human to deceive my own kind?’
Andrea fell into a pensive silence.
Ailaira used Sealing Magic Stones to bind Kuchierkan’s wrists and then carefully disguised traces of battle on her body.
Using magic, she brought Kuchierkan back into the city under the watchful eyes of the public, returning directly to her own estate.
Upon receiving the news, the people from the City Hall immediately rushed to the Green estate. They were joined by Kabellin and other members of the visiting delegation.
It seemed they had also been implicated by the incident and had undergone a round of interrogation. At this moment, they were all simmering with rage. The two groups stood in the main hall of the manor, facing off and glaring at each other.
“You non-human scum! I knew you were up to no good. We should have just burned you all outside the city!”
The Secretary Officer, who had just regained consciousness and was covered in bandages, stood at the front of the crowd, shouting directly at Kabellin and the others.
Kabellin could not swallow this insult, and her polite words were now dripping with sarcasm.
“If I remember correctly, your human side didn’t manage to stop Kuchierkan, did you? Do you really think we are soft targets that you can push around as you please?”
“As the lord of a city, he didn’t even notice he was being poisoned. I truly doubt the administrative selection process of the Verlendel Kingdom.”
The Secretary Officer was furious, waving his arms as if he wanted to rush forward and fight Kabellin, only to be held back by his subordinates. “How could a lazy, disorganized elf ever understand the greatness of our City Lord!”
“Those who are not of our kind must surely have different hearts! I will report this to the Royal Palace tonight and have them come to punish you group of poisoners!”
“If you are too incompetent to find the truth behind the poisoning, do not pin it on us!”
Seeing that the situation was escalating and about to devolve into a magical brawl, Ailaira finally appeared at the top of the stairs.
As soon as she appeared, the hall fell silent. The Secretary Officer gave Kabellin a fierce glare before turning to Ailaira, his voice urgent.
“Miss Green, please hand that rogue dragon over to us! we must interrogate her to find the one who used the dragon poison!”
Ailaira rested her hand on the railing and took two test tubes containing a viscous black liquid from her pocket. She threw them to the Secretary Officer and explained, “I just compared them. The dragon poison the City Lord was afflicted with does not belong to Kuchierkan. You can take these back and verify it yourselves.”
The Secretary Officer was unwilling to give up, persisting, “But as a Dragon Princess, she must be involved in this! Please hand her over to us for disposal!”
“Can any of you suppress a Sixth Rank Black Dragon? Even if she is bound by Sealing Magic Stones?”
The Secretary Officer was left speechless. The battle from earlier had already provided the answer; even without using magic, Kuchierkan’s physical strength alone was not something they could contend with. The Secretary Officer was resentful, but there was truly nothing he could do.
He could only grit his teeth and say, “Then I shall trouble you, Miss. I will immediately report to the Royal Palace and The Church to request professional support.”
“As you wish. Until someone with sufficient capability arrives to take over, Kuchierkan will be kept under my supervision.”
Failing to get the desired result, the Secretary Officer could only lead his people away.
There were still many things that needed to be handled before the City Lord recovered. Once the humans had left, the non-humans clearly relaxed quite a bit.
Kabellin looked at Ailaira with a look that was almost intimate; after all, by staying here, they at least wouldn’t be harassed.
“Mistress Ailaira, thank you for clearing our names.”
“It’s nothing. You weren’t involved anyway.”
Ailaira looked at the weary non-humans and felt a bit amused. Each of them had been high-spirited when they left this morning, looking like prisoners finally getting a breath of fresh air.
After one night, it was as if they had all been beaten back home.
“Are you all going out again?”
The exhausted members of the delegation shook their heads in unison. Kabellin gave a bitter smile and denied it.
“Forget going out. I’m prepared to stay at Mistress Ailaira’s house until the visit ends and then go straight home.”
“Yeah, I don’t even want to go to the Royal Capital anymore. At least this place is close to home.”
“This is my first time here, and I run into something like this. What terrible luck!”
Kabellin’s words immediately drew agreement from the others. Ailaira didn’t mind how long they stayed; anyway, there were plenty of rooms, and the Royal Capital was paying her for the hospitality. It would be a waste not to take the money.
After ordering the servants to arrange dinner for the others, Ailaira returned to her bookroom.
Sitting behind her desk, she repeatedly went over the sequence of events from today, but the City Lord’s poisoning was simply too bizarre, appearing without any warning.
While everyone’s attention was on Kuchierkan, Ailaira had gone to inspect the cup the City Lord had been drinking from.
There were no traces of dragon aura or residual magical power on it. Furthermore, when she was neutralizing the poison for the City Lord, Ailaira had used her magical power to examine his entire body. Aside from old injuries caused by her mother’s kick years ago, there wasn’t a single suspicious wound.
This also ruled out the possibility of Sillirora mimicking the City Lord. [Mimicry] was useful, but it wasn’t omnipotent. It was impossible for no flaws to show under Ailaira’s magical scrutiny.
Was the one who planted the poison Sillirora? And why would she harm someone who was staying out of the conflict?
During this night where countless people found it difficult to sleep, although the City Hall tried its best to cover up the news of the City Lord being poisoned, the information still leaked out and spread rapidly among the residents.
Under the intentional guidance of certain parties, from the perspective of the residents, it was those despicable non-humans who had harmed their beloved, selfless City Lord.
Thus, amidst the public fury, Andrea was woken up early the next morning by the shouting of the crowd. She dazedily opened the window, and a rotten egg nearly smashed into her head. Fortunately, Andrea reacted quickly and dodged it.
The egg shattered in the room, its foul stench instantly driving away Andrea’s sleepiness. She turned to look out the window in anger, only to be stunned by the sight of the commoners surrounding the entire manor in thick layers.
“For the Dragon God’s sake, we’ve really provoked the masses!”